# Bill O'Reilly really is losing it. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 18, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850 "2003-12-18T21:09:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![booka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@booka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booka)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/41 "2003-12-19T15:49:53Z")
Did you see O’Reilly last night when he had the constitutional law professor from Hofstra on his show? They start talking about the legalities of holding Padilla and the others at GitBay. O’Reilly is clearly all itchy, just foaming at the mouth trying to get some moronic populist rhetoric going. The professor calmly started to explain how the Constitution works relative to all of this, and when O’Reilly didn’t like what he was hearing, he cut the guy off, and basically said “I don’t care about that”, and started in on his own silly rant that was based in unreality. I sat there, stunned. I mean, I knew this guy had kinda gone over the edge, but now it was really obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/42 "2003-12-19T16:25:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by booka \* > \*\*Did you see O’Reilly last night when he had the constitutional law professor from Hofstra on his show? > > They start talking about the legalities of holding Padilla and the others at GitBay. O’Reilly is clearly all itchy, just foaming at the mouth trying to get some moronic populist rhetoric going. The professor calmly started to explain how the Constitution works relative to all of this, and when O’Reilly didn’t like what he was hearing, he cut the guy off, and basically said “I don’t care about that”, and started in on his own silly rant that was based in unreality. > > I sat there, stunned. I mean, I knew this guy had kinda gone over the edge, but now it was really obvious. \*\* hahaha. I remember watching him a few weeks ago and he was debating a lawyer and he told the lawyer ‘i know more about the constitution than you do’ and the lawyer kindof laughed. I dont know what kind of lawyer she was but it was probably a constitutional lawyer of sorts as that was the topic of discussion. ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/43 "2003-12-19T17:13:28Z")
Wow Drudge and Moore used in the same sentance, now **that’s** a meltdown. Hard to believe anyone even bothers with O’Reilly anymore. He is so 2 years ago. Maybe that’s the reason behind his unhinged behavior. More and better competition for the same product he is selling. Obviously, his customers have plenty of choices and have moved on. Then to find out his personal demons have bested him, **and** a fellow conservative has outed him as both a liar and a failure to his market demographic. Not good. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/44 "2003-12-19T17:15:02Z")
I often listen to O’Reilly in my car at lunch, I don’t know why, but I guess I just like to yell at my radio. I’ve been listening to more talk radio in general, so of course I hear the promos for O’Reilly all the time. One that ran constantly a couple of months ago had O’Reilly ranting about some guy at a concert blowing pot smoke into a 10-year-old’s face all night. He concluded by saying something like “See, that’s what it’s like in a secularist society. Do you really want some guy blowing his pot smoke in your kid’s face? _That’s what you’ll have if the secularists win!_” Oohhhhkaaayyyy O’Reilly I’m about as “secularist” as they come, as are most of those with whom I associate, and we’d just plain be kicking some ass in that kind of situation (as Bill himself would claim to do. . .be the tough, yet just, guy). His constant claims to be an “independent” are, of course, ridiculous as well. “I criticize the right just as much as I criticize the left. . .” he says. Yes, I’ll give you that. _However_, it seems to me that you criticize the people on “the right” for not being _conservative enough_. Also, you may come to conclusions independently, but if you consistently come to the same conclusions as members of “the right,” then guess where that puts you. I also think it’s funny that he rails against “newspaper X” for being biased and a shoddy source of information, then during the commercial break you hear his recorded ad for Sonic Breeze or some such touting that “Newspaper X called this the innovation of the century!” Sure Bill, should we believe that product review, or was the review part of a liberal secularist media conspiracy to get some kind of sinister air-purifier/home-abortion-kit into every bathroom in America? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/45 "2003-12-19T18:15:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*You know who wrote a pretty good book was Tucker Carlson. His book, _Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News_ is really an interesting, entertaining and informative look behind the scenes at the cable news industry. \*\* I recommended that book to a poster awhile back, and I can’t remember if it was you or not. I’m curious if I had any part in prompting that purchase. And if I may interrupt the (well-deserved) O’Reilly pitting for a serious question: what are the differences between the various bestseller lists? Is the one Drudge cites to more reliable than, say, the NY Times? Why? I vaguely recall criticism of some lists for including “bulk sales” – can someone provide more description to that criticism? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/46 "2003-12-19T18:17:00Z")
Maybe this is his new ratings angle. You know, watch the live-nationally-broadcast meltdown. There’s a sort of pleasure in it. What’s it called again? ---
**Author:** ![Creative\_Munster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Creative\_Munster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creative_Munster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/47 "2003-12-19T18:26:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*Could you be a bit more specific, **Munster**? Like precisely _which_ ultra-whacko nutcases he exposes? Or does he twist the words and thoughts of entirely sensible persons who think we are a nation of sheep being led by jackals? Or maybe just persons who suspect that the Bushiviks aren’t doing such a bang-up job? > \*\* Well, my good man, what’s coming to mind immediately are the people who occassionally appear on his show demanding reparations. I have more examples, but my feeble brain will have to exert more effort coming up with them. I hope that this will appease you for now. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/48 "2003-12-19T18:47:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SimonX \* > \*\*Maybe this is his new ratings angle. You know, watch the live-nationally-broadcast meltdown. > > There’s a sort of pleasure in it. What’s it called again? \*\* Schadenfreude. O’Reilly is a fruitcake for sure. I can’t even figure out his stance on most issues anymore, because he seems to perpetually contradict himself. His interview with Terry Gross on NPR was most excellent. As was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog making fun of it a few weeks later on his own interview with her. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/49 "2003-12-19T18:58:07Z")
**Dewey** An interesting question. For the most part, the _NY Times_ is considered the standard for this sort of thing. The issue of “bulk sales” came up several ways. Firstly, it was a bit of very droll political chicanery. Sen. Fogbottom writes his epoch-making autobiography _My Nine Struggles for Freedom, Liberty, and God_, a form of verbal chloroform (to steal from The Master). MammonCo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Greed, Ltd., who has a bill it is anxious to see enacted, sees the inestimable value of _Nine_, and purchases 10,000 copies to distribute to its employees (with a generous tax credit for educational projects). The fact that Sen Fogbottom is chairman of the committee on Pork Disbursement is, we are given to believe, entirely irrelevent. (It is also characteristic of such ploys that the author’s share of the purchase price exceeds anything offered to such hack scribblers as Hemingway or Steinbeck, and are offered by such publishing giants as Remainder House…) Of course, this is a very different kettle of fish heads than _individual_ purchases of a book. The _NY Times_ typically notes this distinction with a tiny dagger next to the sales totals. (It should be noted as well that this phenomenon has also been associated with the otherwise inexplicable sales figures for books by the entirely loathesome L. Ron Hubbard…) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/50 "2003-12-19T19:39:11Z")
OK, so followup question: who’s doing the bulk buying for these political rags? I can understand MammonCo buying Senator Fogbottom’s book, but last I checked Ann Coulter was not an elected official. (I’m not disputing you here, I’m just trying to get a handle on the phenomenon.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/51 "2003-12-19T19:44:30Z")
Also: how are the various lists compiled? I know the NY Times is the best-known, but why is that so? How does the list Drudge cites stack up? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/52 "2003-12-19T19:47:50Z")
I just wanted to point out that while O’Reilly is foaming about his patriotism and his book sales Al Franken is off on his fourth tour with the USO. Perhaps he was premature announcing the Al Franken Century as he had been announcing the Al Franken Year and Al Franken Decade. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/53 "2003-12-19T19:49:29Z")
Yeesh! Make that “NOT as premature.” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/54 "2003-12-19T19:50:17Z")
Oh, its much more diverse than that one example. If, for example, you were to see a dagger next to Ann of Green Goebbels name, that would indicate that someone had made a “bulk purchase”. Typically, bulk purchases are distributed by corporations or foundations, typically to employees. Some are offered as premiums for donatons, like PBS or _Buzzflash_. In Sen Fogbottoms case, a fairly circumspect way of offering a bribe. IIRC, this was the weapon used by Newt Gangrene to bring down Speaker Wright. Why anyone would purchase even one of her books escapes me. It is not unknown, however, for corporations to take an interest in thier employees political education. And that’s all I know, officer! I swear! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/55 "2003-12-19T19:53:35Z")
Okay, “Newt Gangrene” was a little obvious but “Ann of Green Goebbels” is one of the truly greats! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/56 "2003-12-19T19:57:43Z")
The _NY Times_ is the standard out of habit. They’ve been doing it since papyrus was the medium, and nobody else will bother to challenge them on it, as there is little enough money in it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/57 "2003-12-19T20:39:26Z")
Is there anywhere where one can find out who is making bulk purchases of a particular book? I’d like to know who Ann’s sugar daddies are. PS - In in case you’re wondering why I’m taking such an interest: dear ol’ dad’s a O’Reilly-phile, I know this is going to come up over Christmas, and I’d like to be loaded for bear. As much as I dislike the positions of you and your leftist brethren, ' **luce** , I am equally put out by the kneejerk right. My kingdom for more _thinking_ conservatives in the world! PSS – Dad’s a thoughtful guy about pretty much everything _but_ politics. He ain’t a troglodyte, he just isn’t terribly interested in the topic, and so is wont to take things at face value. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/58 "2003-12-19T20:53:41Z")
In the matter of enlightening our too conservative respective _paterfamilias_, we stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity. I have no idea how you would go about finding out _who_ are making the purchases, I very much doubt that you can. Mine own seems bent on single-handedly keeping Regnery House in business. I haven’t seen him with a Ann Coulter book, but I fear that is more due to his contempt for the opinions of women. Beyond an offering of sympathy, there is little enough I can do. (You’re Dad is more conservative than _you!_? Who the fuck did he vote for, Khublai Khan?) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/59 "2003-12-19T20:56:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SimonX \* > \*\*Maybe this is his new ratings angle. You know, watch the live-nationally-broadcast meltdown. > > \*\* Anyone remember **Network** One of the problems of growing old is that the most absurd satires of 20 years ago are coming true today. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850/60 "2003-12-19T21:19:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow \* > **I recommended that book to a poster awhile back, and I can’t remember if it was you or not. I’m curious if I had any part in prompting that purchase.** I discovered the book on my own but maybe I had some subconcious influence from reading the board. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-oreilly-really-is-losing-it/219850.md?page=4)